Newspapers must increasingly compete with other media in a dense and competitive informational landscape. The newspaper distributors are therefore in a constant search for methods of preserving their position as a preferred source of news and information. The moment when the consumer first observes the front page is widely known to be instrumental in whether or not the consumer engages further in the reading experience, irrespective of whether the newspaper is encountered on a newsstand or on a doorstep.
In particular, the treatment of the front page is a critical focus for both the news providers and advertisers, and is therefore essential to both the paper's public identity and its commercial revenue stream. To increase consumer interest and create opportunities for distributors and advertisers, newspapers have recently begun to be provided with applied labeling. A subset of these labels includes premium features that can be removed and retained by the consumer, such as coupons, rebate forms, or discount tickets.
It is essential in these cases that the removal of the label does not diminish the readability of the underlying product. Due to the low relative strength of newsprint, the election of a particular adhesive and label structure is therefore critical to the workability of an applied label.
The medium of lenticular imaging is widely known to draw consumer attention and increase perceptions of value. However, lenticular materials generally differ from paper or polymer label stock in that the lenticular lens sheet must have a particular thickness that commonly approximates the focal length of the constituent lenticules. Because of these and other special conditions, printed lenticular images have not been successfully adapted to complement newspaper distribution.
The attachment of lenticular imagery to a discrete base of printed material of a more conventional structure is well known and documented in the prior art. For example, in beginning June 1965, Cowles Magazines and Broadcasting, Inc. collaborated with Visual Panographics, Inc. to regularly provide covers with an applied lenticular image for a travel magazine entitled Venture. A roughly contemporaneous patent issued to Finkel in 1966, U.S. Pat. No. 3,268,238, similarly the use of applied lenticular images inside bound publications. U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,465 to Winnek depicts a similar arrangement. Such adhered lenticular “tip-ons” became commonplace in that era. Each of the above referenced patents is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
By 1971, Bhutan had issued an adhesive-backed lenticular postage stamp. Self-adhesive lenticular products were also subsequently devised. Lenticular collector stickers produced by Gordy International in 1984 in association with the Transformer™ brand of toys serve as exemplary self-adhesive products of this era.
In a series of patents issued to Sekiguchi, exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,445, lenticular materials are applied as wrappers or sleeves to beverage containers and various other articles of trade.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,140 to Silver describes the invention of a polymer emulsion that could serve as a weak adhesive. Silver's low-tack formulation was later to be developed by 3M for use with removable and repositionable notes.
However, none of these teachings encompass the know-how necessary to manufacture and apply a product suitable for use as a non-destructive label upon a periodical newsprint document.